Making web applications work offline is a hot topic. Google Gears blazed the trail, and Web Storage is part of HTML5. CouchDB is a NoSQL alternative that makes it easy for web apps to run offline. This is important because even as bandwidth grows, latency is still an issue for a significant number of users, and outages or zero-bars can and do happen. CouchDB makes this a non-issue by running your application close to the user, on their device or in their browser. Chris calls this "ground computing" - a refreshing counterpoint to the oft-used "cloud computing" label. Hear more from Chris in his video and slides.